Annoying Gaming Lexicon

[Craig]

As someone from the North East of England, I will endeavour to describe gameplay as "proper mint" more often.

[kintaris]

As someone from the North East of England, I will endeavour to describe gameplay as "proper mint" more often.

All future Three Word Reviews: Proper Mint Gameplay.

[Alex79]

Backlog, as a badge of honour.

You have no obligation to play anything you don't want to play.

Well, yeah. Although Backlog surely implies that they are games you do want to play. My backlog certainly isn't full of games I don't want to play!

[Stanshall]

Probably just too much reddit r/truegaming for me, where people seem to feel obliged to share how many hundred games in their Steam library, etc. I agree with you, that's how I see it but it seems more like a list of 'games I bought'. Bit of an unnecessarily moany post from me, to be honest! ;p

[kintaris]

Backlog, as a badge of honour.

You have no obligation to play anything you don't want to play.

Well, yeah. Although Backlog surely implies that they are games you do want to play. My backlog certainly isn't full of games I don't want to play!

Mine's full of games I should want to play, but I'm too easily distracted by newer, shinier things. I'm certainly not proud of spending lots of money on things I haven't used. Badge of shame more like starting to clear it down though, as a good number of them have an associated C&R episode for me to catch up on.

[ColinAlonso]

I'm probably guilty of a few.

I say that I've finished a game if I have seen its end credits even though I may not be finished with it.

I say x instead of cross on a Playstation controller as mentioned above. But I also say o instead of circle, so I'm wrong on two face buttons. Then again I call the game Xs and Os instead of Naughts and Crosses or Tic-Tac-Toe proving that I have no class .

I've noted a recent use of the word addicting instead of addictive to describe something and it annoys me every time I see it. This obviously isn't exclusive to games but it is common enough in game reviews and discussion.

[kintaris]

I'm probably guilty of a few.

I say that I've finished a game if I have seen its end credits even though I may not be finished with it.

I say x instead of cross on a Playstation controller as mentioned above. But I also say o instead of circle, so I'm wrong on two face buttons. Then again I call the game Xs and Os instead of Naughts and Crosses or Tic-Tac-Toe proving that I have no class .

I've noted a recent use of the word addicting instead of addictive to describe something and it annoys me every time I see it. This obviously isn't exclusive to games but it is common enough in game reviews and discussion.

My go-to gaming website back at school, in that golden age before schools worked out how to use internet filters properly, was addictinggames.com. Even at 15/16 years old I shuddered every time I typed in the URL.

[Suits]

"Shmup". Cringe.

"Pick-ups" / "Picked-up".

I don't find Shmup offensive at all. I see it exactly the same as saying RPG instead of saying, "Role Playing Game" eveytime I want to describe a mechanic. Try talking about R-Type and similar style games and saying "Shoot Them Up" over and over again . It soon evolves.

Then pick-ups, I'm guilty of using all the time too. It's something me and my mates use all the time. Every Sunday, we go out and do a little circuit around Essex collecting old video games, then we all meet up and go over what we've Picked Up. Or our Pick-Up's. Even a friend that runs a Vintage Game shop in Leigh On Sea, refers to his carboot hauls as pick ups .

[Alex79]

Yeah addicting is annoying but it's not new. It came across from the US and was in use at least 10-15 years ago on the internet, I noticed.

[KSubzero1000]

I say x instead of cross on a Playstation controller as mentioned above. But I also say o instead of circle, so I'm wrong on two face buttons. Then again I call the game Xs and Os instead of Naughts and Crosses or Tic-Tac-Toe proving that I have no class .

To be fair, my post was a bit mean-spirited. No offense.

[Michiel K]

Leon, honest question.

Don't you think that it's ever worth it to address the topic of critical reception / popular appeal and how they might differ from the perceived quality of a product and/or influenced by outside factors? If you do, how do you think would be the correct way to handle the topic? And could you provide some examples of that?

I'll admit that it's one aspect of CaR which has always seemed a little bit odd to me.


EDIT: Let me illustrate my point.

If I were to just throw "CoD is sooo overrated!" out there as a blanket statement, without adding anything more to it, I can totally see how that might be considered bad form and to be adding very little to the discussion.

But if I were to substantiate that claim by providing a detailed analysis of any given CoD campaign's encounter design, enemy variety and overall mechanics, and to show how all of that pales in direct comparison with other major FPS series despite the overall sales statistics not being representative of that notion, would it still be an invalid conversation in your eyes? Even if I introduced socio-political factors to interpret the discrepancy?

If anything, using underrated or overrated just by themselves (as blanket terms or not) raises a lot of questions. Underrated or overrated by whom? A fan of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword might say the game is underrated, due to the critical flogging it has been getting by a number of series' fans and YouTube critics. But how representative for the entire player base are these opinions? That's hard to quantify. Also, the game received very high marks from the general gaming media on its release. Usually, the use of underrated or overrated is based on the user's own feeling or perception, i.e. "I think this game does not get the praise that *I* think it deserves. Or: "I think this game gets way more praise than *I* think it deserves.

On the Skyward Sword episode I avoided saying "I think this game is underrated" and explained how I was curious to go back to it since I loved it so much on my first playthrough and can't seem to find too many people saying nice things about it nowadays.

[Michiel K]

The stereotype that all Western Japanese game fans are dweebs. Sometimes that clearly ain't true:

youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xv10Z4w09I[/youtube]

I prefer the original Souls of Mischief track.

[KSubzero1000]

That makes sense. So, would "I happen to disagree with the consensus on this one" be kosher according to CaR's standards?

[Michiel K]

I'll let Leon give the definitive word on that, but I think you'll run into similar problems as in how difficult it is to quantify the consensus, except if you use it in reference to the Gamerankings or Metacritic score.

[KSubzero1000]

Right, but without the implication that the consensus is objectively wrong.

It's an interesting topic, that's for sure!

[Tleprie]

I used to call the square button on Playstation controllers 'box'. I've never heard it called that outside my family, so its pretty well beaten out of my vocabulary by now, but occasionally if I'm just playing games with my brother I'll still refer to it as box.

[ratsoalbion]

Awww, that's cute!

[DomsBeard]

Bison, Balrog and Vega mixed up.

It's Balrog, Vega, (Sagat) and Bison

[ratsoalbion]

Nope! The Japanese names are the original and correct ones.

Vega - with the peaked hat - is the main villain and final boss.

Balrog - from Spain - has a claw, you know, like a balrog.

And why the Hell would the boxer character who looks just like Mike Tyson circa 1991 not be called M. Bison?

As we know, the names were only messed around and mixed up due to Capcom's American arm protecting themselves from potential legal action.

[Suits]

I only found out about all that last year I think.

Stunned I was .

Looking back, like you point out Leon, it's obvious but being such a youngster when I was first introduced to it all, I didn't question it .

Great trivia.